WeÔÇÖre too quick to pull the trigger

Mon, 8 June 2015 05:04
by Andreas KathindiSports

I logged on to the net last to be met by news
that should not have been shocking to me, yet
it was. Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti
was sacked, but it should have been obvious, it was
building up for weeks.
Real Madrid were calling for his head and
demanding the club let him, despite the fact that
they were hailing him king just a year ago when he
delivered the La Decima. I say all that to note that,
Namibia is not that far different from our Spanish
friends.
When Ricardo Mannetti’s men drew 0-0 with
Seychelles, their first game of the COSAFA cup, I
noticed that people became increasingly irritable. On
social media and other platforms, there were calls for
Woody Jacobs to be appointed coach of the Brave
Warriors.
Needless to say, all the pitchforks are currently
tucked away. We put Zambia and Zimbabwe away
and all of a sudden, Mannetti is the saviour of
Namibian international football again.
I believe Mannetti is the best we have got at the
moment. No one wants to evoke the hopelessness
football fans felt during the era of Tom Saintfiet,
with all due respect to him. However let’s not forget
that we won three games out of 20 during the era
2008 to 2011.
With Mannetti, there is actually always a prospect
of progressing, whenever we enter a tournament.
But the voice of fans count for a lot. If we ring loud
enough, eventually I believe the (Namibian football
association) NFA could listen, but let us not fool
ourselves and think the grass is greener on the other
side.
My point is that fan’s yo-yo kind of support can
impact our Warriors. That impact may not come
by Mannetti getting the boot, but it will still affect
the team. Player’s thrive off the atmosphere of the
stadium, so let me preface that by acknowledging
that Namibians usually put up a great performance
on match days.
But social media has gone past becoming just
prominent. Everyone is on there, players, coaches,
executives and despite the fact that most players and
coaches will say they are not bothered by negative
words, they are not robots and will get hurt to
whatever degree. Not everyone feeds off negativity
to propel them excel.
Obviously we do not want to condone mediocrity
and if Mannetti ever gets us only two wins in three
years, I’ll lead the pack calling for his head, but as it
is, we have a great thing going.
I know Namibians are impatient and want to be
playing international football at a higher level, but
we shouldn’t also be naïve and expect a World Cup
victory in the next decade.
So let’s continue to support the boys, in good
times and bad, because bad times will come, such is
life, and not just expect every defeat to be followed
with a sacking.
Until the next one, cheerio.